Why Don’t Parents Restrain Kids Properly In Cars?

Police departments often conduct checks to make sure child restraints are used properly.

Most caregivers – parents, relatives, nannies and others tasked with looking after children — are ignoring passenger-safety guidelines, according to a study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

The study’s results in part reflect the difficulty many parents have adhering to safety standards that can seem impractical when everyday variables like busy schedules and recalcitrant children.

Researchers for the medical journal surveyed the use of safety restraints for more than 20,000 children less than 13 years old. The group, which conducted its study from 2007 through 2009, found that many children over age 6 rode in the front seat, including about 25% of 8- to 10-year-olds. Safety guidelines say children should stay in the back seat until they are 13.

Of children surveyed for the study, fewer than 20% of those up to 3 years old were in rear-facing seats even though the majority of the children within this age range in the study were younger than one year old.

After age 7, fewer than 2% of children continued to use booster seats, which are recommended until they are about 4 feet, 9 inches tall – a height few children reach in seven years.

As many parents know, following the rules of child restraints is no simple or easy task. Few guidelines bring this into sharper focus than the American Academy of Pediatrics’ recommendation last year that children remain rear-facing until they are two years old.

Parents with infants and toddlers know it is often difficult to keep them rear-facing past one year, and the notion of a two-year-old riding in a rear-facing seat seems near impossible.

However, child-safety advocates say the stakes are high enough to warrant the added, sometimes painful effort

Researchers say motor vehicle collisions are the leading cause of death among children who are a year old, and for children four and older. More than 140,000 children under 13 are treated in hospital emergency rooms for nonfatal injuries resulting from motor vehicle crashes. Many of the injuries are attributable to improper use of restraints.

Comments (4 of 4)

This deserves more attention, but I'm betting that some simple-minded parents are CONFUSED about how to properly strap-in the baby seats. Others ignore it and are just plain irresponsible and should be FINED to the greatest extent of the law. I'm reading EVERY DAY about parents who leave their kids ALONE in the car...in the parking lot...in high HEAT while they go off shopping. WHAT does that tell you about some parents today? JAIL THEM and take away their kids.

6:54 pm August 10, 2012

anonymous wrote :

Some 10 year old girls are larger than some adults. Some cars only seat 2 people, or the back seat is too small for a tall 9 year old. Arbitrary rules will be violated in the face of real world situations.

5:54 pm August 10, 2012

Mike wrote :

Car seats aren't making the future safe from the facism that these kids are inheriting from Washington D.C.

5:52 pm August 10, 2012

jdb wrote :

Sobering stats. We have no problem with the notion of keeping a toddler rear facing for longer. Our daughter lobbied hard to face forwards before 24 months, and admittedly we compromised before that milestone. That said, our son is now approaching 2 years old, still facing rearward, and not a complaint from him at all. Thus we'll continue to rear face him perhaps well past that birthday. A key consideration for parents is not to fall into a pattern of assumptions based on hearsay or random comments - in other words, don't turn your kid forward facing too soon just because an acquaintance exclaims "how could you"...